ROME, February 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)  Eluana Englaro, who is often referred to as Italys Terri Schiavo, was transferred late Tuesday night to a hospital that has agreed to participate in her killing by removal of her food and hydration tube. Television news coverage showed a group of pro-life activists gathered outside the clinic in Eluanas home town of Lecco at about 1:30am, as an ambulance took her away, some shouting Eluana, wake up! and Dont kill her!

Eluana Englaro, 38, suffered brain damage in a car accident in 1992 and has since been in a state of diminished consciousness. Eluanas father, Beppino Englaro, who has been petitioning the courts for over a decade to euthanize his daughter, said her transfer to the new facility is the first step... towards the liberation of my daughter. It seems we have finally succeeded.

Beppino Englaros lawyer told media that La Quiete, a private clinic in the north eastern town of Undine, had agree to participate in her killing. Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi said the government is searching for a new way to prevent her death. The removal of Eluanas food and hydration tube is set to be carried out in three days.

Death by dehydration has been described by medical authorities as horrible and agonizing. It was a common form of torture used by totalitarian states, including in well-documented cases by the Nazis in their death camps.

In cases of severe dehydration, toxins build up in the body and the body's chemical balances are disrupted. This disrupts the electrical system that triggers the action of muscles, including the heart. The tongue and lips crack and bleed. The eyes recede into their orbits. The skin becomes so sensitive it peels off upon firm contact. The lining of the nose can crack and bleed. Dried brain cells can cause convulsions. The mouth becomes dry and saliva thick, and there is cracking of the mucous membranes of the mouth and lips. The blood thickens, increasing the risk of stroke. As fluid decreases in the body, blood pressure drops and the heart rate increases, possibly causing shock and heart attack.

The move to kill Eluana has roused the ire of many in Italy, including Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, President of the Vaticans Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, said on Tuesday, Stop this murder!

To stop giving food and liquids to Eluana is equivalent to abominable murder and the Church will not cease to proclaim this loud and clear. Interviewed by the Rome daily La Repubblica, the cardinal said that Eluanas court-mandated death by dehydration will represent a defeat for the respect of human life. His comments come after Pope Benedict XVI spoke on Sunday against euthanasia, saying it is a false answer to suffering.

The consequences, both legal and moral, should Eluana Englaro be euthanized in a Catholic Country, will be dire, pro-life advocates have warned. Carlo Caffara, the archbishop of Bologna, said at Mass last weekend, In the body of this woman, and in her fate, there is an image of the fate of the West.

Eluana has become a sign of contradiction between a culture of death and a culture of life, he said. Her martyred body has become the question addressed to every conscience that reflects on man's destiny: To whom does man belong? Who has dominion over man's life and death? Who owns man?

The spiritual event of the West has come to the end of the line: If the life of man does not belong to man but to God, no one has control over it for any reason, [but] if the life of man belongs to man, it is consistent to hypothesize circumstances in which everyone can do what he wants with his life or ask others to put an end to it, Cardinal Caffara continued.

The killing of Eluana, said Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, the director of the Rome office of Human Life International, is going to be disastrous for others in similar situations in Italy. Msgr. Barreiro said, It would create a precedent whereby judges, against the law, can decide it's right to kill patients. We are not fighting for Eluana's life because she has limited signs of consciousness but because of her dignity as a human being.

Pro-life legal experts have been especially concerned that should Eluana be legally killed by dehydration, it would create a back door through which euthanasia could be legalized. The government is considering legislation that would allow the creation of living wills that could specify the removal of food and hydration.

In November, health and welfare minister, Maurizio Sacconi, issued a statement that in Italy it is illegal to remove the food and hydration of helpless disabled patients with the purpose of ending their lives. Secretary of Welfare, Eugenia Roccella, also said that there is no obligation for government-funded health care facilities to implement the courts decision that patients can be dehydrated to death.

In January, two pro-life advocates launched a legal challenge to the appeals court in Milan, arguing that the decision to allow Eluanas killing had been made without sufficient medical examination to determine her condition. At that time, more than 700 Italian doctors had signed an open letter opposing the killing of Eluana, saying that such an action is an attack against the basic rules of good medical practice as established in the declaration of Helsinki.

The killing of Eluana, said Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, the director of the Rome office of Human Life International, is going to be disastrous for others in similar situations in Italy. Msgr. Barreiro said, It would create a precedent whereby judges, against the law, can decide it's right to kill patients. We are not fighting for Eluana's life because she has limited signs of consciousness but because of her dignity as a human being.

These slogans are spoken in Newspeak, the fictional language of George Orwells twisted utopia in 1984. By removing meaning from words and increasing state control over speechand thoughtNewspeak is designed to manipulate those who hear it.

In California, Newspeak is now spoken fluently by those who seek to advance a political agenda in healthcare by avoiding scrutiny.

Under the guise of access to primary care, the Regents of the University of California have been conducting an experiment on women in Concord, Los Angeles and San Diego. Exploiting a pilot project program enacted in 1973 to address a gerontology workforce shortage, Healthcare Workforce Pilot Project (HWPP) #171 allows women seeking medical care to become subjects of social research.

The purpose of this experiment? Demonstrate the role of advanced practice clinicians in expanding early pregnancy care.

Thats Orwellian for training non-physicians to perform first trimester abortions.

In the pilot project, approved in 2006 without legislative oversight, Planned Parenthood sites in three California cities suspended state regulations to use Nurse Midwives, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to perform surgical abortions by suction aspiration...

18
posted on 02/03/2009 4:08:47 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

New hidden-camera footage from Tucson, AZ, implicates a third Planned Parenthood clinic in a multi-state child abuse scandal. In the video, UCLA student Lila Rose and her friend Jackie Stollar enter a Tucson Planned Parenthood clinic where Rose tells the nurse that Stollar, posing as a 15-year-old, is pregnant by her 27-year-old boyfriend. The nurse disregards the age difference and even cautions Stollar not to bring her "boyfriend" before the judicial hearing required in Arizona to waive parental consent for an abortion. This negligence is punishable under Arizona law.

"Is he not a minor?" the Planned Parenthood nurse, who identifies herself as Araceli, asks. When Rose says, "He's 27," the nurse urges the girls not to bring him to the hearing: "I wouldn't take him with me, no. I mean: don't take him."

The video is the third to be released in a national undercover probe called the "Mona Lisa Project." The project, conducted by the student-led California nonprofit Live Action, records on video Planned Parenthood employees as they respond to statutory rape. Rather than reporting the rape--as the law requires--Planned Parenthood clinics hide the identity of the statutory rapist and offer secret abortions...

19
posted on 02/03/2009 4:12:09 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, NOV. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The conclusion of scientist Maureen Condic that human life begins at a defined moment of conception isn't an opinion based on a belief, but rather a "reflection of the way the world is."

Condic, a senior fellow of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, published her conclusions in a white paper titled "When Does Human Life Begin?" In the report she addresses the topic using current scientific data in human embryology.

An associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Condic received her doctorate in neurobiology from the University of California, Berkely. Her teaching focuses primarily on embryonic development, and she directs the University of Utah School of Medicine's course in human embryology.

20
posted on 02/03/2009 4:14:51 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

UDINE, Italy, February 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Today, the Italian government announced it has made ready a draft emergency measure that would prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. As of this writing, the measure, though drafted and ready, has not yet been formally adopted, the final decision being that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The move comes as pro-life Italians have urgently called upon the government to intervene in the case of Eluana Englaro who had been removed late Tuesday night to a nursing home willing to participate in her killing.

The measure, called a "decree law" entitled "Urgent Provisions on Nutrition and Hydration," says, "Pending the approval of a complete and comprehensive legislative framework in the field of end-of-life, nutrition and hydration, as forms of life support physiologically designed to alleviate suffering, cannot under any circumstances be rejected by the person concerned or suspended from caregiver subjects unable to provide for themselves".

Under Italian law, a decree law can be put into place by the head of state in urgent circumstances, for a period of 60 days while Parliament considers it for permanent approval. The draft law was announced as an emergency measure after Eluana Englaro, who is often referred to as "Italy's Terri Schiavo," was transferred late Tuesday night to La Quiete hospital in Udine, that has agreed to participate in her killing by removal of her food and hydration tube.

Pier Ferdinando Casini, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and a member of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, said, "We respect the grief of the family of Eluana and we are close to her father, but we believe that nobody has the right to life and death on a person."

Eluana, now 38, has been in a state of severely diminished consciousness for 17 years following a car accident in 1992. Eluana Englaro's father, Beppino, has claimed that his daughter had indicated that she would not wish to live in such circumstances. He has petitioned the courts for over a decade, despite euthanasia being illegal in Italy, to have her food and hydration removed so that she can "be allowed to die". A lawyer for the family told media that the hospital will begin the withholding of fluid and food starting Friday.

In November, Italy's highest court of appeals, the Court of Cassation in Rome, upheld the ruling of a Milan lower court allowing the petition. Shortly after this ruling, a prominent Italian lawyer, Luca Silvestri, told LifeSiteNews.com that the best hope of saving Eluana's life would be such a law defining clearly that food and hydration could not be considered "medical treatment" subject to withdrawal at the request of patients.

Under Article 32 of the Italian Constitution, a patient has the right to accept or refuse medical therapies, but this has always been interpreted as excluding food and water. Should the government's draft law be adopted and food and water be clearly identified as not subject to Article 32, this potential "back door" to legal euthanasia by dehydration could be permanently closed. . .

26
posted on 02/05/2009 11:57:19 AM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

ROME, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke, in an exclusive interview last week, told LifeSiteNews.com that the issue of pro-abortion politicians continuing to receive Holy Communion is still one of major concern and that it is the duty of bishops to ensure that they are refused.

He told LifeSiteNews.com, "I don't understand the continual debate that goes on about it. There's not a question that a Catholic who publicly, and after admonition, supports pro-abortion legislation is not to receive Holy Communion and is not to be given Holy Communion."

"The Church's law is very clear," said Archbishop Burke, who was appointed last year by Pope Benedict XVI as the head of the Church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. "The person who persists publicly in grave sin is to be denied Holy Communion, and it [Canon Law] doesn't say that the bishop shall decide this. It's an absolute."

. . .

27
posted on 02/05/2009 12:01:13 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama has compiled a new group of faith-based advisors who will comprise his new White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. However, unlike President Bush's group of religious advisors, Obama's includes abortion advocates...

28
posted on 02/05/2009 12:03:50 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

STRASBOURG, February 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese government broke the law in preventing the Dutch abortion boat from landing when it attempted to enter Portuguese territory in 2004, when abortion was against the law. Abortionist and foundress of the "Women on Waves" project, Rebecca Gomperts, said she is delighted with the finding. "We shall use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe," she said...

29
posted on 02/05/2009 12:07:17 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

President Obama has now achieved a pay grade that requires him to confront weighty decisions regarding the state of this nation's legal order, and the protection of human life. Among those decisions will be whether to use the Department of Justice and our courts to advance a legal order that upholds a Culture of Life. The President appears to be signaling his approach through several nominations to the Department of Justice, and one must wonder whether the Culture of Death is at the threshold.

A number of the high-level nominees for Justice, if we view their records as an indicator, stand prepared to implement a legal agenda that would represent a radical departure from this nation's historic treatment of abortion, euthanasia and gay rights...

30
posted on 02/05/2009 12:10:01 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

IF Catholics actually start to see that there are consequences for pro-abortion politicians, many will reconsider who they vote for. IF Catholic voters begin to vote consistently pro-life, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts and probably New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland will go into the GOP column.

32
posted on 02/05/2009 1:50:50 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

“IF Catholics actually start to see that there are consequences for pro-abortion politicians, many will reconsider who they vote for. IF Catholic voters begin to vote consistently pro-life, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts and probably New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland will go into the GOP column.”

I just had this conversation with one of our new priests (your first sentence). He agreed and also made a point in last week’s homily to mention the Church teaching on abortion. It shocked a few parishioners.

That’s only because, historically speaking, the democrats were considered the party of the working class and most Catholics (ethnic) were in the working class. At least those who came here from Italy and Ireland in the late 1800’s, as my paternal and maternal grandparents did. Their children, my parents and their siblings, those who grew up during the Great Depression, fought in WWII, and thought FDR was a socialist and dictator, weren’t fooled. Maybe it had to do with their parents, my grandparents, who saw the danger in FDR and his policies.

I’d like to think that if more people were educated in what the democrat party represents that they wouldn’t be so eager to vote for politicians who want to keep them down and dependent on the government.

I’m not so sure that they’d get more of the Catholic vote if they abandoned their position on abortion. The Catholics who voted for this Administration, and those who vote for someone just because they’re Catholic (like JFK), and those that consistently vote for democrats, don’t have a real understanding of Catholicism or the Constitution.

“Today, the Italian government announced it has made ready a draft emergency measure that would prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. As of this writing, the measure, though drafted and ready, has not yet been formally adopted, the final decision being that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The move comes as pro-life Italians have urgently called upon the government to intervene in the case of Eluana Englaro who had been removed late Tuesday night to a nursing home willing to participate in her killing.”

This is becoming eerily similar to Terri's execution. The Italian Council of Ministers has passed legislation to save Eluana, which the communist president is refusing to sign and the time to override this is not enough time to save her.

Rome, Feb 6, 2009 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Italys Council of Ministers, headed by Silvio Berlusconi, unanimously approved an emergency decree on Friday to stop the father of Eluana Englaro from killing her by removing hydration and food. However, this morning at the clinic La Quiete, where Eluana is staying, the process to end her life was initiated.

According to the newspaper La Repubblica, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi commented on his motivation for passing the emergency decree, saying, "I do not want the responsibility for the death of Eluana."

The decision of the ministers could become law, but still requires the signature of Italys President Giorgio Napolitano, who is reportedly against the decree. Unless the decree is signed, Englaros feeding tube will be removed today, after which it will take two weeks for her to starve to death. . .

ROME, February 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)  Italy's President and head of state, has refused to sign an emergency measure, passed by the government, that would save the life of Eluana Englaro, the young woman whose food and hydration is being removed starting today. The ratification by the President is required under Italys parliamentary system for the law to take effect.

The government announced at 3 p.m. (Italian time) today that it had approved the temporary measure, called a decree law, that was drafted to prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. A decree law is a measure that can be put into place by the Council of Ministers as an emergency measure and will be in effect for 60 days while Parliament debates whether to adopt it permanently.

Napolitanos refusal has frozen the measure and although there is a procedure in place in Parliament to override his decision, it will take 20 days to implement, by which time Eluana will have been successfully dehydrated to death. . .

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, February 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In spite of an emergency decree passed by the Italian government, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree that would save the life of Eluana Englaro, the young woman whose food and hydration has been removed this morning. The ratification by the President is required under Italys parliamentary system for the law to take effect. Eluana Englaro, who has been called Italys Terri Schiavo, has been receiving food and water via a feeding tube since a 1992 car crash that left her with a brain injury. Her father, Beppino Englaro, has been seeking to end her life for nearly 10 years. Todays events will clear the way for Eluana to experience what Terris Foundation called a barbaric and inhumane death by starvation and dehydration unless President Napolitano signs this decree into law. We are very disappointed to hear that President Napolitano is reluctant to sign the decree that would spare Eluana from a horrific death, noted Terri Schiavos brother, Bobby Schindler. Schindler added, It is incumbent upon any official to protect and safeguard the value and dignity of all life, regardless of a persons physical limitations. Eluana is not dying and only needs food and water  the most basic care  to live. This at the very least should be provided for her and we are asking for everyone to contact the Embassy of Italy in the US at (202) 612-4400, and communicate to the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano that he should IMMEDIATELY sign the decree which would prevent Eluanas inhuman dehydration death.

. . .

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."

38
posted on 02/06/2009 1:58:11 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, OCT. 17, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Most Americans, even Catholics, probably take it for granted that the U.S. Constitution protects their right to privacy. But they may be surprised to find out that no such right is in the Constitution.

Furthermore, the advent of the right to privacy in American constitutional law built a foundation for the culture of death to thrive in this country, according to philosopher Janet E. Smith.

To diagnose the problem further, Smith has written The Right to Privacy (Ignatius). In the book, Smith discusses how Pope John Paul IIs encyclical Evangelium Vitae properly identifies the philosophical views that led to the invention of the right to privacy as we know it, as well as how it was used to advance the culture of death. . .

39
posted on 02/06/2009 2:03:13 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

This says a lot that is wrong at our universities--where social outlaws are celebrated and given huge speaking fees--and with the murderer Jack Kevorkian. At his recent speech at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, he had an American flag behind him with the Swastika in the field of stars. From the story:

On Thursday night, Jack Kevorkian pulled another stunt in front of an audience of thousands at Nova Southeastern University: "Let's all say the Pledge of Allegiance," he said, then flipped a U.S. flag to reveal a replica on the other side with a swastika where the blue and stars would have been.

Since Kevorkian's obsession was to conduct human experimentation on people he was euthanizing, perhaps he was speaking about himself with the flag stunt.

That thousands of people turned out to see him shows the decadent power of celebrity that is rotting decency and virtue in our culture.

40
posted on 02/06/2009 2:09:28 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

ROME, February 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has sent a bill to the nation's Senate authorizing the government to prevent a handicapped woman from being dehydrated and starved to death by her father.

Seeking to bypass Italy's communist president, who refused to sign an emergency bill with the same text, Berlusconi hopes to have his bill approved by the nation's legislature within three days, enough time to save Eluana Englaro's life. Berlusconi's party has a strong majority in the Italian Parliament.

"If the possibility did not exist to use decrees, I would go to the people to request a change in the Constitution and the Government," Berlusconi reportedly said in a press conference yesterday. . .

ROME  Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that all human life must be protected, especially that of the weak and suffering, making a last-minute intervention in a right-to-die case that has convulsed Italy.

Groups of protesters  both for and against keeping Eluana Englaro alive  held demonstrations across the country on Saturday. Outside the clinic in the northern city of Udine where Englaro is being cared for, a few dozen people shouted "Eluana Viva!" or "Eluana Lives!"

Englaro, 38, has been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car crash. On Friday, after a decade-long court battle, her nutrition began to be reduced in preparation for removing her feeding tubes, which her father has said was her wish.

Benedict didn't refer by name to Englaro in his message Saturday for the annual World Day of the Sick. But the pope said he wanted to reaffirm with vigor "the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being," even when "weak and shrouded in the mystery of suffering."

. . .

"We will not be silent.We are your bad conscience.The White Rose will give you no rest."

42
posted on 02/07/2009 4:13:58 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

When the President of Italy refused to sign a decree delaying the dehydration death of Eluana Englaro--who some call the Italian Terri Schiavo--it seemed to seal her doom. But now the Prime Minister has moved up an emergency session of the Parliament.

We'll see how that plays out. But the point of this post is the attempt, yet again, to make death by dehydration seem benign. . .

43
posted on 02/07/2009 4:17:35 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

The service will replace the practice of Dr. Dennis Christensen, who had performed abortions up to 22 weeks at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Madison until he retired in December. Planned Parenthood will still do abortions up to 19 weeks. . .

45
posted on 02/07/2009 4:21:30 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

Madrid, Feb 7, 2009 / 12:04 am (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said this week, When the Magisterium of the Church speaks about human rights she does not forget to base them on God, the source and guarantor of all rights, nor does she forget to root them in the natural law.

During a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the offices of the Bishops Conference of Spain in Madrid, the cardinal recalled, The source of rights is never human consensus, as great as it may be.

After emphasizing the intrinsic dignity of each person, Cardinal Bertone explained that the current Roman Pontiff, in perfect continuity with the thinking of his predecessor, underscores that human rights are universal, they apply to all in virtue of the common origin of the person. In reality, the mark of universality is a consequence inscribed in the very concept of human rights: if human rights are those attributed to man for the mere fact of being man, it is therefore evident that they should be recognized for all those who meet this condition.

In our days, there is a continual and radical process of redefining individual human rights in very sensitive and fundamental areas, such as the family, the rights of the child and of women, etc. We should insist that human rights be above politics and also above the nation-state. They are truly supranational. No political minority or majority can change the rights of those who are most vulnerable in our society or the human rights inherent to all human persons, he stated. . .

47
posted on 02/07/2009 4:25:01 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

Her father is claiming that she once said she wouldn’t want to live like this. However, her accident was in 1992 and at that time ANYBODY making statements like this was certainly talking about artificial life support, NOT food and water.

49
posted on 02/07/2009 4:29:26 PM PST
by wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)

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